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Instrument Inventory and Attendance

Instrument Inventory

  • Familiarity and usage.
  • Typing information is preferred over scanning.

Attendance Tracking

  • Goal: Improve tracking and accountability for students, especially regarding lateness and absences.
  • Current System: Spreadsheet in use since the instructor came in.
    • Updated for the current year with dates and student enrollment.
    • Includes an attendance key to log different attendance statuses.

Attendance Key

  • Current categories:
    • Presence
    • Absence
  • Proposed additions:
    • Excused Absence (EA).
    • Unexcused Absence (UA).
    • Excused Tardy (ET).
    • Unexcused Tardy (UT).
    • Leaving Early (LE).

Absence Reporting

  • Current process:
    • Families/students submit forms for conflicts or illness.
    • Advance notice: Paper form for planned absences.
    • Same-day notice: Google Form for unexpected absences (illness, etc.).
    • The instructor manually enters data from both forms into the spreadsheet.

Streamlining Suggestions

  • Consider converting the advance notice paper form to a Google Form to consolidate data sources.
  • Automated integration of form data into the spreadsheet.
    • Decision-making on absence type (excused vs. unexcused) is needed.
    • Manual entry helps with awareness of attendance.

Potential Improvements

  • A single, branching Google Form for all absence reporting.
    • Questions to determine if the form is for a future or current absence.
    • A column in the form's spreadsheet for approval status or absence code.
  • Using the coded absence information to create a visual representation in the attendance spreadsheet.

Spreadsheet Access and Functionality

  • The form is designed for internal use and is not accessible to students.
  • Current data entry is manual.
  • Desire to automate email notifications for certain attendance events.

Automated Email Notifications

  • Goal 1: Send an email to the student/parent when an unexcused absence (UA) is recorded.
  • Goal 2: Send a separate email when a student reaches a threshold of unexcused absences (e.g., three).

Technical Considerations

  • Achieving full automation may require scripting, which is beyond the current team's expertise.
  • Formule add-on can be used to achieve some automation.

Formule Automation

  • Formule can send automated emails based on conditions in the spreadsheet.
  • Multiple templates will need to be set up for different scenarios (Unexcused absence, tardiness, etc.).
  • A trigger column may be needed to initiate the email send. For example, "If the number in column BX is greater than four, put yes here, then send this email."

Formule Limitations

  • The Formule requires the trigger cell to be cleared to resend the email.
  • Conscious effort to reset the form.

Attendance Event Triggers

  • Specific triggers and templates needed for:
    • Unexcused Absence (UA).
    • Unexcused Tardy (UT).

Modified Attendance Key

  • UA: Unexcused Absence.
  • EA: Excused Absence.
  • ET: Excused Tardy.
  • UT: Unexcused Tardy.
  • LE: Leaving Early.

Formula Updates

  • New columns must be added to trigger off of the new attendance codes.

Email Templates

  • Different email templates for tardy vs. excused absence vs. leaving early.
  • The email for different codes should contain specific, relevant information.

Trigger Conditions

  • A trigger column to indicate when to send a particular email.
  • The content of the trigger column can dictate which template is used.

Student Roster & Email Lookup

  • Need a student roster with email addresses for automated sending.
  • Unique identifier: Student ID number.
  • The formula will look up the ID number on the roster and pull in the corresponding email address.

Roster Integration

  • Copy student roster information into the attendance sheet.
    • Columns for student and guardian emails.
    • Student ID is also added for identification.
  • Consider having this information on the main attendance page and hiding the columns to keep things cleaner.

Email Addresses

  • Staff emails should come from official school accounts, not personal accounts.
  • Investigate using an ETHS (Evanston Township High School) band account for email automation.
  • Check with the tech team (Jessica Don) about setting this up.
  • The format address would be ETHSmessage followed by a numerical value.

Final Steps

  • Create/finalize email templates.
  • Update the spreadsheet with the new codes and columns by the end of the following week.

Post Meeting Follow-Up

  • Send the email templates in a Google Doc for review.
  • Schedule a follow-up meeting sooner within the week as opposed to later.